In this monologue, Dennis Prager reflects on the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, arguing that Russia under Putin resorts to killing political opponents while the United States, though less extreme, increasingly jails dissenters, including figures like Donald Trump. Prager uses Navalny’s sacrifice as a rallying point, invoking the Jewish legend of the 36 righteous individuals whose existence sustains the world, and recommends the novel The Last of the Just for deeper insight. He concludes by expressing personal reliance on belief in a just God and an afterlife as a source of sanity and moral resilience in a world where justice is scarce.
Chapters
So Alexei Navalny, who was an associate vice president— he was, he was next to the president of Russia— a young, vibrant, freedom-loving Russian has been killed by Putin's people because he was anti-Putin. In America, we only jail opponents. There, they kill them. So we're not— we're not yet— the left in America has not yet reached Putinesque levels of oppression. And I'm not being cute, I'm not exaggerating. We now jail political opponents and in fact even potential candidates like Trump. Okay, that we are, we are moving in the direction of Putin and of various left-wing regimes. I don't know what you call Putin. Is he right or left? He's, he's a dictator. And if you get too popular as an opponent, you will probably die. Alexei Navalny died. Only God knows what they did to him. Navalnys of the world, give me strength, because I take on stuff that's not popular. There's a massive amount of hate directed at me on the internet, and I sleep perfectly fine. I'm not suffering what Navalny suffered. These people, good people, and there aren't many good and courageous people. He went back to Russia. That's right. Where was he living at the time? England or someplace like that, in the West. He went back knowing that he would be arrested and probably killed. There is a great Jewish legend called the legend of the 36. And here is the legend: that at any time on earth, there were 36 really righteous people, thanks to whom the world continues to exist. And if it ever got down to 35 or less, the world would implode. It is a terrific— you should read The Last of the Just, is a major novel on the subject. Came out like half a century ago, if not more. The Last of the Just. I, I, I— there's brilliance to that legend. A certain number of courageous people keep the world going. The evil would, would win everything were it not for them. Alexei Navalny is one such example. I have said many, many times and written, my sanity preserver is the belief in a just God and an afterlife, because there's so little justice in this life. My sanity keeper is that there was justice meted out in the next. Otherwise, it's, it's too despairing, this life. May he rest in peace. May he be rewarded by the good, just God that I believe in.
